White & Bishop Case Study - Courier Integration with MetaPack
White & Bishop are a long standing independent company which
has been trading since the 1930’s. Originally supplying work wear
to the agricultural industry, it moved into the outdoor clothing
market in the 1960’s. Operating through two bricks and mortar
stores and their own website, they also supply to both the World
Challenge and Duke of Edinburgh awards schemes.
The Challenge
White & Bishop were experiencing the pitfalls of using a manual
despatch process. Using a parcel carrier as well as Royal Mail,
they were working with a method that was labour intensive and
completely manual. Orders were received via White & Bishop’s
web front end and address details were then typed into the carrier
despatch management system.
When despatching with Royal
Mail, the process was slightly different. Goods were manually
weighed and the delivery details were then hand written on both
the address labels and in the despatch book with service stickers
applied based on the weight. The parcels were then taken to the
Post Office and paid for with cash. Not only did this process impose
time constraints and have an impact on resources, it was necessary
for White & Bishop to keep large amounts of cash on site in order to
pay the Royal Mail postage costs.
The Solution
MetaPack were introduced to White & Bishop through Citrus-Lime,
who are retail specialists providing integrated epos and ecommerce
systems. The MetaPack Despatch Management System is used
as a ‘black box’ which sits behind the main interface of the
Citrus-Lime OMS (Order Management System) and information
is passed seamlessly between both systems with the use of an
API (Application Program Interface). Citrus-Lime makes a call into
MetaPack to find out the correct delivery options which are then
presented to the user to choose, printing all the necessary labels
and documentation.
There is no longer any need for manual
intervention, which has saved the despatch team a lot of time and
alleviated pressure on resources. As the Royal Mail deliveries are
now processed through an OBA (Online Business Account) there
is no longer a need to visit the Post Office or keep large amounts
of cash on site.
The elegancy of this type of integration enables
White & Bishop to operate through one interface for both order
and despatch management. This allows them to manage their
carrier base without the costly hardware and operational changes
associated with carrier base manipulation and by using a carrier
and Royal Mail, they are able to fulfil their customer’s service
expectations and ship internationally with MetaPack printing all the
necessary customs documentation. The flexibility and simplicity of
MetaPack has enabled White and Bishop to simplify the visibility
of their order management process along the entire length of the
cycle.
http://www.e-outdoor.co.uk
Courier Integration Module - Citrus-Lime and MetaPack |